David Hannan Media Legacy

A Living Legacy

David Hannan, founder of the Ocean Ark Alliance, is an acclaimed multi-Emmy award-winning underwater film-maker, explorer, artist, educator and conservationist. David’s startlingly beautiful cinematography of the marine world is featured in many of the world’s most successful natural history documentaries, feature films and digital media exhibitions, including David’s own productions Coral Sea Dreaming, Antarctica Dreaming, Undersea Edens, Rob Stewart’s Sharkwater and Revolution, Yann Bertrand’s Planet Ocean, National Geographic’s Great Migrations and Secret Life of Predators, BBC’s Blue Planet, Lynette Wallsworth’s Coral Re-Kindling Venus, the Capacitor Group’s Okeanos and Twinstar Film’s 3D feature film for Disney Aldabra.

Over thousands of dives, David has amassed one of the world’s largest and most coveted tropical marine footage libraries, as well as an extensive archive of Antarctic subjects on HD.

The Ocean Ark Alliance has established the David Hannan Media Legacy initiative for ongoing archiving, indexing and hosting of David’s media collection and life’s work. Over the years, many marine-related campaigns have had support and input from Dave Hannan’s extensive digital media collection.

As a Founding Director of Ocean Ark Alliance, David’s vision is to develop and expand an ongoing legacy of accessible media materials, and in turn, merge it with the greater media collection now gathering under the umbrella of Ocean Ark Alliance. A prototype “Online Footage Resource” has been established here and sample footage clips can be seen here

Ocean Ark Alliance recognises that human beings cannot survive without healthy oceans, and that in a rapidly changing biosphere, saving the oceans is the same as saving ourselves.

Meanwhile, the imperative to explore and document still living reefs, especially throughout The Coral Triangle, continues to motivate many more determined dive hours filming tropical marine life in all its amazing diversity.

“The friendly, educational and musical environment established by watching Coral Sea Dreaming created a powerful therapeutic presence for all my patients and their families.”

Brian RikeD.O. Emergency Medicine

“I’m honoured to know and work with David Hannan. He’s the best in the world at capturing the phenomenal beauty and incredible behaviours of creatures that call coral reefs home.”

Sue HoughtonSeries Producer, National Geographic Secret Life of Predators

“David produced a free DVD for AMPTO to use to show the impact of Crown of Thorns starfish on healthy coral reefs. This DVD was shown to federal and state politicians, and was one of the most important tools used by our Association in getting both governments to commit funding to the program. The funding achieved was more than $6 million over seven years, and the control program saved an enormous area from devastation.”